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MILITARY MATTERS
Award Presentations
Each month Key West MAC enjoys recognizing the best of the best personnel serving in our local military activities.
MONTHLY REPORT FROM KEY WEST’S MILITARY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Key West Military Affairs Committee’s (MAC) mission is to foster and strengthen the relationship between the military and civilians in our community.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
It has been a busy month for military activities and events in Key West, especially with the commissioning of our nation’s newest warship, USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, on May 13 at the Navy’s Mole Pier.
• Congratulations to Navy League Key West Council President Marty Jenkins and the Navy League Commissioning Committee for making the Higbee commissioning and all the events leading up to it such a resounding success.
• May is Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Month, during which our nation’s military pays tribute to the contributions and dedicated service of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders past and present. The May MAC meeting discussed various AAPI medal of honor recipients from the first in 1872 to the last in 1969 as well as the upgrading of 22 citations in 1996 from previous years.
• May is National Nurses Month and May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday, was International Nurses Day. It was no coincidence that the USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee commissioning occurred during this month, as Lenah S. Higbee was one of the first 20 members of the Navy Nurse Corps (NNC). She was also the first living female to be awarded the Navy Cross. Naval Branch Health Clinic Key West held an open house on May 12 in support of USS Higbee commissioning and to commemorate Nurses Week.
Dr. John Bratten, Ph.D., Professor and Chair Department of Anthropology , University of West Florida
